Australia's drought-hit farms like lambs to the slaughter

By Jonathan Barrett and Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) – Danny Stork, a livestock farmer in Glen Oak, 180 km (110 miles)north of Sydney, has 20 bales of hay left for his 100 head of cattle. “If it doesn’t (rain), I will have to sell all the livestock, it is that serious.” The drought in Australia’s east, one of the worst on record, is impacting every area of rural life, often with global trade and price implications. Australian farmers slaughtered 659,000 head of cattle in June, the highest monthly figure in three years, according to government data published on Tuesday.